“Signing a peace treaty for the Korean peninsula would not only benefit North and South Korea but would also contribute to world peace.” Michel Chossudovsky, 66, author of “The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order” (published in Korea by Dangdae Press in 1998), gave a lecture on July 26 at Women’s Plaza in Seoul’s Daebang neighborhood. His lecture was part of the International Peace Symposium to Commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Armistice Agreement to Call for a Peace Treaty on the Korean Peninsula, which had been organized by the People’s Movement for Opposing War and Achieving Peace. Chossudovsky, a professor emeritus in economics at the University of Ottawa in Canada, is the founder of the Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG). In his books including “Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War” (published by Hanul Academy in Korea in 2012), he has consistently attacked what he believes to be the imperialistic nature of major international powerbrokers such as the US and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In Chossudovsky’s view, one of the main reasons that the Korean Peninsula has remained under a ceasefire regime for 60 years is because the US seeks to use the region as a springboard for war. The starting point for the wars, secret operations, and government coups that the US has orchestrated since the end of World War II, Chossudovsky claims, was the Korean War. As he sees it, the US has increased its military spending and justified its military interventions in the Korean peninsula over the past 60 years while exaggerating the threat posed by North Korea.

Chossudovsky also asserted that the US committed a serious violation of the armistice agreement when it brought nuclear weapons into South Korea only four years after the agreement was signed. “The South Korean government and media have an extremely asymmetrical viewpoint about this as well when they only criticize North Korea’s nuclear program,” he said. Chossudovsky is concerned that the US policies that are jeopardizing the stability of the Korean peninsula may put not only North Korea but also South Korea in danger of war. He said that, if war (nuclear or otherwise) were to break out on the small Korean peninsula, not only the primary American target of North Korea, but also South Korea, would be unable to remain safe. “Seeking a peace regime for the Korean peninsula will not only liberate North and South Korea from the peril of war, but it will also be of immense help in stopping the US from behaving badly around the world,” Chossudovsky said. Acknowledging that bringing about a peace treaty on the Korean peninsula would be “very complicated,” Chossudovsky advised moving forward one step at a time.

The first step is taking back wartime operational control from the US as planned. “It is wrong for the Korean military, which is supported by the tax money of South Koreans, to receive orders from the US military command,” he explained. On July 27, the day that the armistice was signed, Chossudovsky is planning to attend the International Peace Assembly, which will be held in front of the US army base at Seoul’s Yongsan at 4 pm. The International Peace Assembly is scheduled to be held simultaneously in 81 cities both in Korea and around the world in countries such as the US, Japan, China, and Russia.

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